The Lake Margaret Power Station is the third oldest hydro-electric power plant in Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It was constructed between 1911 and 1914, by the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company

Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company

Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company was a Tasmanian mining company formed on the 29 March 1893, most commonly referred to as Mount Lyell. Mount Lyell was the dominant copper mining company of the West Coast from 1893 to 1994, and was based in Queenstown, Tasmania.Following consolidation of...

. It was sold to the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission

Hydro Tasmania

Hydro Tasmania, known for most of its history as The HEC, is the government owned enterprise which is the predominant electricity generator in the state of Tasmania, Australia...

 in 1984, and was officially decommissioned on 30 June 2006, and recommissioned in 2009 after a multi-million refit and officially re-opened

History

In 1911 the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company decided to make more extensive use of electricity

Electricity

Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 in its smelting

Smelting

Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...

 operations in the mining town of Queenstown

Queenstown, Tasmania

Queenstown is a town in the West Coast region of the island of Tasmania. It is located in a valley on western slopes of Mount Owen on the West Coast Range.It had a population of 5,119 people . At the 2006 census, Queenstown had a population of 2,117....

, on Tasmania's west coast. It selected Lake Margaret

Lake Margaret (Tasmania)

Lake Margaret is the name of a lake high up on the north side of Mount Sedgwick,in the West Coast Range, West Coast of Tasmania in Australia.-Dam:...

, a small lake high up on Mount Sedgwick, to the north-west of the town, as its catchment area.

In 1911, construction of a dam was commenced, which raised the original lake by six metres. The water was originally conveyed from the dam via a 2.2 kilometre wood stave pipeline. The Australian Woodpipe Company was consulted and employed to construct the wooden pipeline. The Mount Lyell Mining & Railway Company determined that not only was a wooden pipeline cheaper to construct, but it was also more efficient and durable than iron or steel. The local native Tasmanian timber King Billy Pine was studied but it was decided not to be suitable. In a letter dated 13 June 1913, Albert G. McDonald, an interstate representative for the Australian Woodpipe Company, wrote to Robert Carl Sticht

Robert Carl Sticht

Robert Carl Sticht was an American metallurgist and copper mine manager, active in Colorado and Montana, U.S.A. and in Tasmania, Australia...

, the General Manager of the Mount Lyell Mining & Railway Co Ltd:

With regard to King William Pine, we are sorry to say that we do not consider this at all suitable for the purpose of pipe construction on account of its lack of uniform density. We did prepare an estimate for constructing the pipe at your Works from Pine to be supplied by you, and our estimate actually worked out at a lower figure than that of your engineers, but we feel that we would not like to be associated with the manufacture of a pipe made from this timber. We regret being compelled to arrive at this decision because we have been searching Australasia for a suitable timber, and thought that the Pine in question might have answered the purpose.

The wood stave pipeline was subsequently constructed from Oregon Pine (Douglas Fir), which was imported from Canada. The timber was shipped to the west coast town of Strahan

Strahan, Tasmania

-See also:* Convicts on the West Coast of Tasmania* Macquarie Harbour* Railways on the West Coast of Tasmania* West Coast Piners-Further reading:* *...

 and was transported to the Lake Margaret precinct via the ABT Railway

West Coast Wilderness Railway

The West Coast Wilderness Railway, Tasmania is a reconstruction of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company railway between Queenstown and Regatta Point...

. This pipeline rapidly deteriorated and in 1938 was replaced by a King Billy Pine wood stave pipeline, with the timber sourced locally. This pipeline was still in service until the 30 June 2006 closure of the Lake Margaret Power Scheme.

The wood stave pipeline originally joined two 29 inches (736.6 mm) steel penstock

Penstock

A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydraulic turbines and sewerage systems. It is a term that has been inherited from the technology of wooden watermills....

 pipes which dropped 330 meters to the power station building in the Yolande Valley below. Due to the efficiency of the scheme another penstock pipe was added in 1919. Due to internal deterioration these pipes were replaced in 1969 with a single 48 inches (1,219.2 mm) steel pipe, by contractor John Holland. This replacement coincided with major refurbishment of the power station building, renewal of sections of the Lower Power Scheme wood stave pipeline, replacement of the transmission lines between the power station and the Queenstown substation, and post-stressing of the Lake Margaret dam wall.

The Lake Margaret Lower Power Scheme was opened in 1931. Showcasing the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the men in charge at the time, it was located downstream from the main power station and utilised water that had already powered the turbines in the main station. It housed a single Boving-Francis type turbine which, whilst having to be manually started, could be remotely controlled from the main power station, demonstrating a unique system that is considered significant in the history of power generation in Tasmania and Australia. The Lower Power Scheme was mothballed in the early 1990s.

Closure

The power plant itself produced 8.4 megawatts of peak power from seven Pelton turbines, with an average output of 5.5 megawatts (limited by rainfall into the catchment) 4 of which were in service from when the building opened in 1914, 2 since 1919 and the 7th since 1930.

Throughout 2005 the old plant was still in full-time use, but became the subject of debate. The Lake Margaret Precinct and Power Station have been nominated to be included in the state Heritage register, due to the unique nature of being an integral part of West Coast

West Coast, Tasmania

The West Coast of Tasmania is the part of the state that is strongly associated with wilderness, mining and tourism, rough country and isolation...

 history that has not been closed down or destroyed, which is the fate of many of the man made structures on the west coast that no longer serve purposes for the mining or other industries.

On 30 June 2006 the Lake Margaret Power Station closed, due to the cost and increasing difficulty of maintaining the decrepit King Billy Pine pipeline. In the days immediately before closure, 5 machines were operating at full output, one was idle due to insufficient water pressure and another out of service due to requiring replacement turbine buckets.

At the time of closure the pipeline was estimated to be losing 10% of the water it carried due to leakage. During early 2007 the extent of leakage was sufficient of itself to draw down the level in Lake Margaret by around 10% during a period of very low rainfall. At this time the pipeline was still under pressure although the power station remained closed.

The Hydro has proposed refurbishment of the scheme with a return to operation around 2009-10. Community consultation found a strong preference for refurbishment using the existing machines plus a new woodstave

Woodstave

Woodstave is a common usage of a specific construction material made from wood. The form of the wood is in staves similar to the construction of a wooden barrel as manufactured by coopers of early years. Woodstave was commonly used in the construction of large vessels to contain and/or transport...

 pipeline rather than the use of new machines or a steel pipe. Hydro is currently considering the redevelopment in view of the financial and practical implications.

Any re-use of the existing machinery would likely involve the installation of automatic shutdown capability to avoid the need for 24 hour manning of the power station in order to improve the economics of refurbishment. All of Tasmania's other major hydro-electric power stations were either originally built to operate unmanned (standard procedure for new power stations in Tasmania since the 1950s) or have been refurbished in recent years to enable unmanned operation.

Back to Lake Margaret Day

On Sunday 18 March 2007 Hydro Tasmania hosted the Back to Lake Margaret Day at the Lake Margaret Hydro-Electric Scheme. The event was an open invitation to all people interested in the past and future of the Lake Margaret scheme. Previous residents and employees were invited to attend, and the day was officially opened by Alex Wilkinson, the oldest known person who has an association with the scheme.

During the day the mothballed power station was open for inspection, as were two of the empty c1914 cottages which had formerly housed many of the attendees at the event. The village hall was a hive of activity during the day, with aged photographs being pinned the walls and people reminiscing about their time at Lake Margaret. The date was chosen to coincide with the Mount Lyell

Mount Lyell

Mount Lyell is the highest point in Yosemite National Park, at above sea level. It is located at the southeast end of the Cathedral Range, northwest of Rodgers Peak...

Twenty-Five Year Reunion Dinner, which was held in Queenstown on the same weekend and included many past employees who also have an association with Lake Margaret. Over 250 people attended the Back To Lake Margaret Day.

Re-opening

In 2010 following the various public and other efforts - the Lake Margaret system was re-opened

External links

• http://www.hydro.com.au/home/Energy/Cultural+Heritage/Conservation+Management+Plans.htm